> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.marzipan.co/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Overview

> A two-way email inbox for your customer conversations.

Messages is a two-way email inbox built into Marzipan. When a customer replies to one of your emails, their reply threads into a per-customer conversation, so you can keep every exchange in one place and respond without leaving the app.

To open your inbox:

1. Log in to your Marzipan account
2. Click on **Messages** in the main navigation menu
3. Your conversations will be listed, with flagged and unread conversations at the top

### Layout

The inbox has two panes.

<Frame>
  <img src="https://marzipan-cloud.b-cdn.net/0/docs/messages/inbox.png" alt="Messages inbox layout" />
</Frame>

* **Conversation list (left)** - conversations grouped by customer, each showing unread and flagged indicators and a short preview. Flagged and unread conversations sort to the top.
* **Thread (right)** - the conversation you've selected.

### Reading and replying

Open a conversation to read the full thread, with incoming messages from the customer shown separately from your replies.

* Reply from the box at the bottom of the thread. Press **Cmd/Ctrl+Enter** to send.
* Use **Reply & close** to send your reply and close the conversation in one step.

<Note>
  Opening an unread, unassigned conversation automatically assigns it to you and marks it as read.
</Note>

### Assigning and organising

Keep your inbox tidy and share the workload across your team:

* **Assign** a conversation to a team member.
* **Flag** a conversation to mark it for follow-up.
* **Close** a conversation when it's resolved, and reopen it if you need to.

### Filtering and searching

You can filter conversations by:

* **Status** - `open` or `closed`
* **Assignee** - including **Me**, to see just the conversations assigned to you

You can also search by customer, or by subject and body.

### Compose

To start a fresh conversation with a customer, click **New message**.

### Form submissions

Submissions from your contact forms arrive in Messages as conversations, with the submitted field values shown inline so you have the full context before you reply. See [Submissions](/forms/submissions) for more on setting these up.

<Warning>
  Customer replies only reach your inbox once **inbound email** is set up. A banner appears in Messages until it is - see [Inbound setup](/messages/setup).
</Warning>

## In this section

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Inbound setup" href="/messages/setup">Set up MX records so customer replies arrive in your inbox</Card>
</CardGroup>